[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Upgrade Your Motherboard the Easy Way here

[HeroofAvalon]

OMG, who is screening these articles?!

Okay, I'm going to make this simple: You don't HAVE to do anything to reinstall your applications after you switch motherboards. So long as your hard-drive is compatible with your motherboard, you just take everything that was plugged into the old one, plug it into the new one, and go. The only real thing you have to do is, if you're running Windows, is re-authenticate your copy. I know this because my motherboard blew up a few months back and I had to replace it.

Take it from a guy with experience, folks: None of the article-writers at PCWorld know what the hell they're talking about.

[robertstrohmeyer]

Heroof: The article doesn't say anything about reinstalling applications after switching motherboards. What it does say is that you may need to update your drivers to support the new mobo, and that Windows itself may need to be reactivated. Did you actually read the whole thing?

[HeroofAvalon]

Robert: My point wasn't against the drivers--my point was against the misleading article title designed to lure in the inexperienced users. "Reinstalling your apps" and "updating drivers" are two entirely different things, and this article's writer seems to think they're one in the same.

[foolishfish]

I've done this more times than I'm willing to admit, and my advice is to just reinstall if you're changing chipsets from one company to another or upgrading more than one generation newer.
If you're upgrading just for the sake of upgrading rather than for hardware failue, take the extra time to just reinstall. Your computer will thank you for it.

[dlauber]

You are absolutely right if you are replacing your motherboard with the exact same motherboard.

But the article was all about changing motherboards, not replacing your mainboard with the exact same model. I've upgraded motherboards about about 70 Windows computers over the years and the advice in this article was pretty good with one omission:

I've found that motherboard upgrades go much more smoothly if, before you uninstall your existing motherboard, you use msconfig to prevent nearly everything that loads on boot from loadings, especially your antivirus or Internet security program. The less that must load on boot up, the less that can go wrong when the new motherboard is booted the first time. Also, remember you may have to install third party drivers when doing the repair install of Windows XP or 7 -- so prepare the floppy disk (or USB drive) in advance to use during the repair install of Windows.

Otherwise, the article seems pretty much spot on.

HeroofAvalon, on 13 July 2010 - 05:35 PM, said:

OMG, who is screening these articles?!

Okay, I'm going to make this simple: You don't HAVE to do anything to reinstall your applications after you switch motherboards. So long as your hard-drive is compatible with your motherboard, you just take everything that was plugged into the old one, plug it into the new one, and go. The only real thing you have to do is, if you're running Windows, is re-authenticate your copy. I know this because my motherboard blew up a few months back and I had to replace it.

Take it from a guy with experience, folks: None of the article-writers at PCWorld know what the hell they're talking about.

[MrFusion]

One suggestion. Leave your electrical cord plugged into the case until you have disconnected everything. Make sure your computer is turned OFF and especially turn the power bar OFF, but leave the cord plugged in. This allows you to ground yourself better and dissipates any static buildup in the case.

Before installing any hardware, touch some bare metal first with the hardware in one hand. This will equalize the static charge between the hardware and the case.

While most situations might not need this additional step, it could be the difference between static buildup to a dangerous level or the safe installation. Only if you have to move the case to another location or are changing out the power supply would you need to unplug the cord.

[freepasswordz2bg]

If you had been around for a while you would recognize the author of the article. He is well respected having written, tested, recommended, advised, troubleshooted and so on for several publications. I have seen his articles over the last probably 15 years at least (I can't remember his first published date in a magazine, I am not that up to date).

He is not wrong in his general advice. His issue about deactivating software is spot on, sort of. Not all software will cough at the upgrade. However if you have used up your installs (due to reinstall cause of a crash, failed install, heck an upgrade to the current motherboard) he is correct that you need to deactivate the software. Mcafee, Adobe just to name a few will see either different cpu, different mac address on that motherboard and they will then look to see how often the software has been installed. If you have exceeded the license then it will say sorry go buy another license. Don't believe, go to Adobe's website and look at activation/de-activation and they spell out in clear English that whenever you are moving your software to a different machine that you must deactivate to prevent a software license issue. Mcafee is even stricter, 3 installs, no 1 or 2 startovers. You have to go to their website and actually deactivate one of the three license installs.

I run a master-clone system on my computer. I have a good install on a master that I clone. I update the master with new winxp security patches, install games I have bought recently, then clone the master and put it away. Technically that violates the license terms, but the master is much like a backup of my system which is not forbidden, especially since neither units are running at the same time, used in a different machine etc. The first thing I do is deactivate Adobe, because the clone will come up with a license error otherwise. Yes there are illegal ways around this, but why go through the headache and just remain legal, then yes you have to deactivate some software.

The simple abc solution is that:
1. You need to remove any software that revolves around devices that are installed or have or are hooked up, this includes printers, scanners, mouse drivers, chipset specific monitoring software (to monitor temp, adjust cpu speed, etc). If it plugs into the usb port (while I am not versed on this, you still have to enumerate items on those ports which will not be on the same controller or hub in a new motherboard in most cases - I did an upgrade from Nvidia 780i Core 2 Duo to Intel i72600k z68 and they don't use the same usb maker just an example). You leave the chipset drivers themselves to the very end. You should then shut your system down. Remove all additions, sound cards, usb keyboards (hopefully you still have an old ps/2 to make things easier) and go into your bios and disable any hardware that was actually removed during this part of the setup to change over to a new board (hopefully you looked at your device manager with hidden devices shown so you know what actual hardware was affected by software removal, sometimes nothing will be). You should only have a video card, keyboard and mouse still hooked up. Once you made any necessary changes to the bios reboot.

2. Once you have uninstalled the software, go into safe mode. Proceed to device manager, then remove any devices (other than your chipset software - that should be done by the chipset uninstall software) that still show up in usb, and certain other sections. You should not touch System Devices, only remove items in areas like dvd/cd rom, 1394, imaging, modems, uninstall video adapters using the video card makers uninstall program preferably while you were still in normal mode.

3. Then on reboot, make sure you disable the devices you have uninstalled, for example if you have an ide chip on your board and you removed those drivers, then disable it, firewire disable, and so on. Make sure you stay in safe mode till you have all devices and software related to those devices removed. Then go into normal windows, remove the chipset drivers. Reboot into safe mode and cancel any request by windows to reinstall drivers if applicable.

4. From this point, those who have wrote volumes on this recommend resetting your sata controllers to standard ide so you have completely removed any possible remaining reference. Check your device manager one more time.

5. From here I once again yield to those who have done this more than me. I actually remove the standard ide drivers in safe mode then shut down. I remove the drive and make the motherboard change over. When you finally have the new motherboard ready to load your windows make sure you have only what is absolutely necessary for your computer to load windows (so disable firewire, onboard sound, network, etc. - so you should have really only sata, usb, and single core no HT on start up. Remember the single guiding principle in troubleshooting also applies here, the less you have to be enumerated, the less chance your system could fail in loading windows IN SAFE MODE (read ahci comment in next paragraph) (never go normal mode on the first bootup). Once you get into safe mode, if you have only the most required devices enabled, you should have a smooth change over. I don't know about AMD, but with Intel use their chipset drivers while in safe mode. Then guess what the next step is essentially to load windows normally. If done right, you will see that windows background image and the start button responding.

Most important is to know what mode you installed you installed your SATA drives in on the previous motherboard. If you did ahci then make sure you change that in the bios before your first boot with your new motherboard and current windows install. If you did not or are not sure, then set for IDE/Compat settings.

So while no disrespect meant to HeroofAvalon, Mr. Case knows his stuff. He maybe could have expanded his software coverage, but I think this article was intended for experienced users. I don't think he tells anyone that you have to remove your software, he just mentions that if you have software that requires activation and deactivation for moving an install, that it will save you a great deal of hassle to do it before you change boards or equipment. Why play e-mail or phone tag with adobe, mcafee or others if you know their software is going to flag your install of its software due to new gear, save that time at the beginning and enjoy your system sooner.

And to make such a generalization of the writers at PC World is harsh. Sure maybe here and there a writer could be wrong. However I don't think PC World would still be around if its writers didn't know what they were talking about. And in your case it sounds like you did an even motherboard swap (Board A for a new Board A and not Board A from company B to Board B from Company C). If you did change chipsets and it worked, then consider yourself lucky, as that usually is not the case, especially if changing from one company (meaning chipset maker, Nvidia - which of course is out of that business for Core Processors and I think AMD CPU's as well, so that really just leaves Intel and AMD, and those who still have Nvidia chipsets)

HeroofAvalon, on 13 July 2010 - 05:35 PM, said:

OMG, who is screening these articles?!

Okay, I'm going to make this simple: You don't HAVE to do anything to reinstall your applications after you switch motherboards. So long as your hard-drive is compatible with your motherboard, you just take everything that was plugged into the old one, plug it into the new one, and go. The only real thing you have to do is, if you're running Windows, is re-authenticate your copy. I know this because my motherboard blew up a few months back and I had to replace it.

Take it from a guy with experience, folks: None of the article-writers at PCWorld know what the hell they're talking about.

[tommlang]

Just went through this, transferring only the HDD w/ Windows 7 HP to the new system. Windows and Office both needed reactivation (within 3 days). The automated procedures didn't work for Windows and I had to call and talk to a real person. Since I was using a Family Pack with 3 licenses, it was a little more complicated, but in the end I got a new 54-digit machine id after attesting that I was using only 3 copies of Windows per the license. After that, Office activated itself.

[MerlynCooper]

What if you have a multi-booted computer with XP, 7 and Ubuntu? XP is my primary install... if you make this the primary drive of my boot up... will I lose the grub?

[blcain]

After reading ALL kinds of posts about swaping motherboards and all the hassel involved and the possibility that I might have to do a clean install, I got to the point that I thought it would be easier just to do a new system build and start fresh. I just did not want to reinstall all the software that was on the old system. I was in for a suprise - to say the least!
I was using an EVGA 123-K8-NF47-AX socket 939 motherboard with Win XP pro sp2, AMD X64 CPU and 2 gig of memory. It died, would not get past the "FF" in the boot process. I had to make a backup of my drive C using another system and an external connection. Turns out I did not need to. At least I have a complete backup of the drive.
Nowhere could I find an exact replacement board on the internet.
I decided to use a new old stock MSI K8N SLI board I had in hopes that I would not have to do a complete re-install of everything.
I put the board in the case, installed the memory, CPU, fan and Geforce video card. Hooked nothing up except my drive C. No cd/dvd or other hard drives.
Started the system and got into the BIOS to tell it the boot order and used all the default settings. Got out of the BIOS and the system booted right up. It did some internal dancing for awhile then the desktop came up with no problems. I did have to re-install the video drivers and load the audio dirvers from the boards setup CD.
I next got a screen saying that Windows detected a major change in hardware and would have to be reactavated. I hit "next" and decided to call rather than use the web and it gave me a long number that I would have to give Microsoft in order to reactavate. I called the 888 number and was connected to a robot that wanted the number, it then gave me a new activation code and all is well with the system. All programs work as they did before the swap. I reinstalled all drives and everything is perfect. Just wonder how long this board will last. I had the old one for over 4+ years with no problems.
Maybe I'm just lucky or the boards are enough alike that I had no problems to speak of.

[PCWorldReader52]

Quote

You don't HAVE to do anything to reinstall your applications after you switch motherboards. So long as your hard-drive is compatible with your motherboard, you just take everything that was plugged into the old one, plug it into the new one, and go.

That's not always true. I tried to install a program on more than one PC and the program stated, I was required to first copy my registration online, then deactivate the installation on the old PC before I would be able to activate in on the new PC.

Quote

I know this because my motherboard blew up a few months back and I had to replace it.

Did you replace or upgrade? This is an upgrade.

Quote

Take it from a guy with experience, folks: None of the article-writers at PCWorld know what the hell they're talking about.

I think I'll consider the advice of the Author and check for a deactivate option. If there's one present, it must be there for a reason. You seem pretty pleased with yourself, which usually signifies narcissism, so I'll make a backup first then deactivate any programs before proceding with the swap. It's to late once you boot up the new hardware, and the program insists you contact the software company, and I need to spend time trying to convince them I'm not running 2 installations.

[PCWorldReader52]

Quote

"Reinstalling your apps" and "updating drivers" are two entirely different things, and this article's writer seems to think they're one in the same.

You must not use your computer much, otherwise you wouldn't be talking foolish like you are,
Some software is really stubborn when it detects it's no longer on the same system. I understand that some people are unaware or deny that the software knows the difference, but it does. That's the reason the author mentions this.